Film star Robert Pattinson autographed a menu at The Majestic Saturday for Eve Armstrong, 13-year-old daughter of Chef Cathal Armstrong.

Patrons at The Majestic got a pleasant surprise Saturday night when film star Robert Pattinson, most famous for his role playing a forever-young teenage vampire Edward in the "Twilight" films, strolled in for dinner with friends while in town for the White House Correspondents Dinner.

The Majestic is a cozy upscale diner on King Street in historic Alexandria, a suburb of Washington, D.C., in Virginia that specializes in comfort food.

Pattinson, 25, a London native, mingled easily with the crowd at the bar while waiting for a table, according to Jennie Kuperstein, publicist for The Eat Good Food Group.

Pattinson dined with four friends, ordering a steak—medium rare—prepared by Majestic Chef Shannon Overmiller and autographing a menu for Eve Armstrong, Chef Cathal Armstrong's 13-year-old daughter. The steak on the menu is described as "All Natural Virginia New York Strip Steak" which comes with fries and sells for $27.

Elle: Who do you compare yourself to?Sam: … My first job ever was with Eddie [Redmayne] in the Pillars of the Earth and I’ve witnessed him grow as an actor – he looks so at home, it all seems to come very easily to him. He’s friendly with Andrew Garfield and Robert Pattinson and he’s the next one of their group to come through….

Let’s talk about your upcoming David Cronenberg–directed film, Cosmopolis, which stars Robert Pattinson. What’s your role?I’m an art dealer. I only shot two days. The whole film takes place in a car. There are some scenes outside, but mostly it takes place in a limo. Cronenberg placed Robert on one seat, and I was the mover in the scene, so he let me improvise. It was fascinating to see how they would take time to light the car. It was like an art form almost, a painting. His [cinematographer], Peter Suschitzky, is very precise in that way.Robert was stunned to be taken by Cronenberg, because he didn’t think he could do it. But Cronenberg believed in him. It’s amazing—a director sometimes makes you do bigger things than you imagine. You need to have, like, a midwife to give birth. You need this midwife in order to grow, and imagine these new layers in yourself.

I’ve seen a little bit of you in “Cosmopolis.” You’re in the car, wearing a little black dress, making out with Robert Pattinson. Who do you play?I play an art dealer who’s been a lover of Robert Pattinson’s character for a few years. Throughout the whole film she has this kind of sexual moment that Cronenberg always puts in his films. Then at the end she’s feeling alone and left out. I don’t know how long the scene is – maybe four minutes – but it’s like a lifetime, a relationship kind of starting and ending.

Was it exciting working with Cronenberg?Yes, though it was only two days shooting. It’s always interesting wondering whether you’re being taken into a film, or whether you’re taking the director into it. When you work with great directors, you never know who starts it. Being stuck in a limo means you have to use your imagination. So Cronenberg played Robert in one spot and after that he let me do what I wanted, and when he was satisfied we stuck with that. He was precise language-wise, but otherwise he let me be, emotionally. It was good.

Exclusive screening of the movie in Paris, Robert Pattinson and David Cronenberg will be there.

on Wednesday May 30th at 8:30pmMore info coming soon (ETA: at the end of the day or of the week)

This is the official facebook page of the Parisian movie theater where a lot of movies premieres/screenings take place.
ETA: The movie will be screened in English with French subtitles. Tickets will be on sale soon.

ETA2: There will be a red carpet. Rob and David will be there to present the movie. There wont be a Q&A tho.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Cosmopolis is one of the most anticipated films of the 65th Cannes Film Festival. His director spoke to Metro.A few months after telling the story of the disagreement between Freud and Jung in A Dangerous Method, the Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg returns to theaters with Cosmopolis, in theaters on May 25th. The adaptation of the short novel by the American author Don DeLillo in which a young businessman, Eric Packer, drives through New York in a limousine. The beginning of a journey that also implies sexual violence and that will leave no character unharmed. Alongside Robert Pattinson, star of Twilight saga, we'll also find Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton and two frenchies, Juliette Binoche and Mathieu Amalric. Awarded with the Special Jury Prize for Crash in 1996, and in competition in 2005 with History of Violence, David Cronenberg spoke to Metro.How did you tackle the adaptation of Don Lillo’s novel?I wrote the script in six days. The first three days, I transcribed again the dialogues in their entirety. The next three days, I added descriptions for each scene. In short, you will find all the dialogues from Don DeLillo, because it is a great language. However, I didn't keep the internal monologues. Instead, you will get visual ideas that the book brought out of me. I’m very excited about the film and even more by Robert Pattinson’s performance.This is a choice that could be surprising to some of your fans …Rob is a wonderful actor and I think he will surprise people . He is young, he’s handsome, he's had a lot of success with Twilight and because of that many people think he's a bad actor. I'm aware of that, but I can garanty you he is very good and he works very seriously. In the most wonderful of ways. For that matter, I can not wait to work with him again. I even told him I would love to put him and Viggo Mortensen together in an upcoming film.Do these famous actors directly contact you to work with you?Most of the time, they ask their agent to tell my agent that they're eager to work with me. (laughs) But sometimes I ask to work with an actor without knowing if he knows about my movies. This was the case with Rob, and it turned out he knew of my work, actually he's a guy with great cinematic knowledge. On the set of Cosmopolis, I remember him having long conversations with Juliette Binoche about dark French short films. He's a true cinephile.To hiring him was another way to attract a different audience from yours?Once we have confirmed his part in Cosmopolis, a lot of online blogs began talking about the film. I saw teenagers reading Don De Lillo’s novel and say that it was great. And I hope the film will please them. Now, if they 'only' like Twilight, they might be disappointed. But if they're actual Rob’s fans, they’ll love Cosmopolis. It was the same when I worked with Viggo Mortensen the first time. If you were an hardcore Aragorn fan in Lord of the Rings, you might not want to see him in History of Violence. But if you like the actor, then you are ready to follow him in different movie projects.You wrote the sceenplay for several novels in your career, starting with Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs or Crash J.G. Ballard. What kind of reader are you?I don't like reading a book just to make a film. For Cosmopolis, it'ss the producer who contacted me. He said “I have the rights and I think you’d be the perfect person to direct this film.” And he was right! The rest of the time I read a book because it feeds me, because it excites me, because I’m just interested. I love David Foster’s novel, Wallace that I discovered after his death. The Pale King, his posthumous book, is absolutely brilliant.

Rob talks about acting, what he thinks has been the most important and the best challenge when it comes to Edward. And finally talks about Twitter and why he won't tweet.

Translation:

From Brad to RPattz - another heartthrob, when he arrives on the red carpet - the girls' heart beats get louder along with their screaming. As the fans requested, we're gonna see Robert this week as 'hot in hollywood' we're gonna see a reportage about his life with exclusive interviews. It's true that the world-wide fame came to Rob Pattinson with the Twilight movies but his professional life in cinema started when he was a young man in the Harry Potter movies.1:06 : the fans' passion about twilight had always been exceptional. and Tobert's life changed all of a sudden.1:40 : what was the biggest challenge about playing Edward?2:10 : in real life, Robert Pattinson is really shy.2:43 : and he gave us some more details about the upcoming movie Breaking Dawn Part 23:25 : and the last time Kristen and Robert visited London, they preferred to get out of their hotel separately like the whole world doesn't know about their offscreen relationship.

The Breaking dawn part 1 interview was posted HERE. A new question is asked in this video :)

The rules:- You can only enter the contest once.- The game is open to every adult french resident (inhabitants from Corsica included).- It runs from April 25th to May 8th, midnight (Paris time)- All you have to do to enter the contest is to go to this PAGE and answer a question correctly so you can be eligible for the draw.

The question is: What are the names of the three French actors playing in the movie? -Juliette Binoche & Matthieu Amalric? -Sandrine Kiberlain & Vincent Cassel?-Julie Delpy & Nicolas Duvauchelle?

ETA: their rules are a bit confusing but from what I understood, there are 3 partners to this game (Cinéma Gaumont, Wat.TV and Purefans). One will offer a trip to Cannes, with everything payed for (transportation and hotel), and a ticket to go to the screening and the party of the movie.The other partners offer a meet and greet with Rob and David in Paris. Only eligible if you CAN go to the meetingAll the winners have to accept to be filmed in Cannes or in Paris. The images could be used on TV or on the internet.The answer can be found in the trailer.50 other names will be drawn and win the soudntrack of the movie.The winners will be contated by email on May 18th and May 19th. They have to reply before May 21st.source | via

Were you familiar with Don DeLillo’s novel?
No. But I had read some of his other novels. I first read the screenplay David Cronenberg sent me, and then the novel. One is incredibly true to the other, it is faithful in a way that seems impossible, for a novel that see med impossible to adapt. But even before reading the book, what impressed me the most about the script was the quick-paced rhythm and the unrelenting tension.

What was it about this film that appealed to you the most?
Cronenberg, obviously! I have played in only a few films, and none of them came close to what I expected working with him would be like. I wasn’t disappointed… I knew he would be very creative, and that it would be a real experience. And I was appealed by the writing of the script, like a kind of long poem. And a mysterious poem too. Usually when you read a script, you quickly know what it is about, where it is going, how it will end, even if there might be unexpected or sophisticated twists and turns in the plot. But this time it
was completely different, the further I read, the less I could figure out where it was leading, and the more I wanted to be a part of it. It doesn’t fit any film genre whatsoever, it is in a league of its own.

When you first read the script, did you see yourself in the role, could you imagine what it would look like visually?
Not at all. The first time I spoke to David, it is exactly what I told him, that I didn’t visualize anything, and he thought it was a good thing. Besides, I think that at this point, he wasn’t thinking much ahead, it all evolved in a progressive, organic way, starting from the text, towards the many visual choices that shape the film. It is a living process. Even during the first week of shooting, we were all still wondering what the film would look like once finished. It was fascinating, I felt like the film was fashioning itself.

Now that it’s done, is the film much different from the script, or on the contrary did you stick to what was written?
It is hard to say, because the film acts on different levels. I’ve seen it twice, the first time I was amazed by its farcical side, which I knew was there during the shooting, but which was unexpectedly apparent. The second time, the gravity of what was at stake prevailed. Both times, there was an audience attending, but the reactions were wide-ranging, from laughter to tension over the dark side Cosmopolis also has. Despite its complexity, I was amazed by the way it reaches a wide range of emotions.

In your opinion, who is Eric Packer? How would you describe him?
To me, Eric is someone who feels like he belongs to another reality, who lives as if he was born on an other planet, and who tries to discover in which reality he should be living. In fact, he doesn’t understand the world as it is.

Yet he has enough understanding of the world to make a fortune in it.
Sure, but in a very abstract way. Banking, broking or speculating are disconnected activities, he has done well in them, not as a genuine specialist or a mastermind, but rather thanks to a kind of instinct, something much more mysterious, with the help of algorithms not unlike magical formulas. You can see in the film, as well as in the book, that his approach of financial data tends to project him in the future, so much so that he doesn’t know how to live in the present anymore. He probably grasps the workings of the real world somehow, but only in peculiar and obscure ways.

Did you talk about it with David Cronenberg?
A bit, yes, but he liked me to search for something unexplained and unexplainable. He particularly liked it when I played without really knowing what I was doing, and as soon as he felt that I was making up chains of cause and effect, or coming out with a logical explanation for Eric’s behaviour, he would interrupt the take. It was a very odd kind of directing, entirely based on feelings rather than ideas.

How did you prepare for the part?
David doesn’t like rehearsals. We didn’t talk much about the film before the shooting. And I only met the other actors on set, during production. I discovered them as they appeared, literally, on Eric Packer’s limousine. And it was quite pleasant. From the beginning of the shooting, I sort of lived inside the film, and inside the car: I was always there, it was my home, and I welcomed the other actors in my space, sitting tight on this kind of captain’s chair, with everybody visiting me. Being used like that to this environment felt particularly comfortable. Everyone else had to adapt to what was basically my world.

Did you have an input about your character’s looks or wardrobe?
I did, but the thing is he had to have a neutral look, we tried to avoid the most obvious or stereotyped features of rich businessmen or traders. The only discussion was about the choice of the sunglasses at the beginning, I searched for the most indefinable pair, one that wouldn’t say anything about the character.

What difference does it makes to shoot scenes as much as possible in script order?
It is really important, it has a cumulative effect that shapes the film. At first, nobody really knows what the tone of the whole film will be – well, maybe David (Cronenberg) does, but he won’t let it show. For the crew, it is this cumulative effect, as the character reveals more about himself, which slowly builds the identity of the film. It also allows the character to loosen up while his life is falling apart.

One of the particularities of the part is that, one by one, you get to meet many different actors. How does it feel?
When I agreed to make the film, the only actor already on board was Paul Giamatti, which I found was great. Then, it was both magical and slightly scary to see Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Mathieu Amalric… show up like that. Each of them brought a different tone. It wasn’t easy for them either, all the more so as David expects the actors to transform their acting, to let go of their habits. It was challenging for them, in such a short time. As for me, I was sort of settled in this world, in tune with its rhythm, but the others had to get used to it right away. Actually, some made up very creative things while we were shooting. Notably Juliette Binoche, who came out with an unbelievable number of acting options.

Would you say that there were various styles of acting, especially due to the different nationalities involved, or that everybody ended up fitting Cronenberg’s mould?
Oh no, there were different sensibilities, and I think that David was eager for that. Paradoxically, this diversity is emphasized by all the characters being supposedly American, except for Mathieu Amalric. Such diversity is congruent with New York, where almost everybody seems to come from a different place, and where the mother tongue of so many people isn’t English. Of course, the film doesn’t aim for realism, including about the city of New York, it never insists on a precise location. But having actors with different backgrounds mirrors New York, just as it contributes to the strangeness and abstraction of the film.

As far as you are concerned, did you have any references in mind, maybe other actors to draw inspiration from?
Quite the opposite, actually, I tried to steer clear of any possible reference. I especially didn’t want to remind the audience of other films about Wall Street, financers, rich bankers, etc. It was more about finding the right a state of mind than relying on usual attitudes or acting effects.

Do you remember Cronenberg having any particular demands, focusing on certain points when working together?
He insisted that we had to say the dialogues exactly as they were written, to the letter. He wouldn’t tolerate any variation. The screenplay depends to a large extent on rhythm, we had to comply with that as far elocution was concerned. He was positive about that, so he made very little takes, which I found quite scary. On Paul Giamatti’s first day on set, Paul delivered in one breath his character’s long monologue, certainly the longest line in the whole film, and David shot it in a single take. It was done, we moved on. I was enthralled with Paul’s performance, with David’s promptness, and with the way he looked so sure the take
was good.

Did you like working this way, scrupulously delivering dialogues as they were written?
It created something I wasn’t familiar with, which is precisely what motivated me the most about making this film. I had never been asked anything like that, usually scripts aren’t followed scrupulously, they are just a foundation and actors are supposed to make them their own. In my previous films, dialogues were flexible. This time, it was like acting in a play: when you play Shakespeare, you cannot rephrase the lines.

Incidentally, the limousine is a bit like a stage somehow.
Absolutely. And in such a setting, it is possible to shoot one scene or another, which means you have to be ready to play several of them. I spent a lot of time learning all the lines, for the first time since I started out as a stage actor, quite a long time ago now. It creates a tension, you have to remain on the alert, which is for the best… Even though it forced me to live the life of a recluse during the shooting: I had to know the part, remember dozens of pages and stay focus. But actually it is quite a pleasant feeling. It’s better than on most sets, where everything is fractioned.

What was the most difficult thing for you about the shooting?
It was disturbing to play a character who doesn’t go through an obvious evolution or follow a predictable path. Actually he does, it is even a hell of an evolution, although not in the way we usually get to see characters change. But David completely controlled this dimension. I have never worked with a director so much in control of his film, who considers himself fully in charge of each and every aspect of it, knowing exactly what he wants, every step of the way. At first I found it unsettling, but gradually I felt more and more confident and relaxed.

Synopsis: BEL AMI is the story of Georges Duroy, who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.